Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull is not linked to whether or not he finishes second in the championship, Christian Horner has clarified.
Perez crashed out of his home race in Mexico at the first corner, where he had been out-qualified by AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Perez’s contract runs until the end of 2024 but Ricciardo’s return to AlphaTauri earlier this year raised speculation he might be replaced before then.
Ricciardo, who is contracted to race with AlphaTauri next year, finished seventh in Mexico City.
Red Bull has insisted all year it intends to continue with Perez, but rumours of a change intensified after the race.
While Max Verstappen has utterly dominated the year in the other car, Perez is yet to wrap up second — Red Bull has never had both its drivers finish in the top two slots of a drivers’ championship.
Asked if Perez had to get that done to ensure he saw out the final year of his contract, Horner said: “No, it’s not as binary as that.
You’ve got to look at the circumstances and so on. Checo has an agreement with us for next year, and that’s our intention — for him to be in the car in 2024. We’ll give him all the support that we can so that he finishes second. There’s no prerequisite that if he doesn’t finish second, you’re out.
“He’s got three races now to convert that second place, there’s 20 points between him and Lewis. He’s had some misfortune, he’s had some issues. But we still believe he can do it between now and the end of the year.”
Perez crashed out in Mexico while going for the lead at Turn 1, saying he saw a gap and went for it.
He later called it the “saddest” race of his career.
Despite Perez’s poor form for much of this season Horner is sure he can turn things around before the end of the season.
He’s a tough operator. That’s why he’s in the car, because mentally, he’s always been able to bounce back,” Horner said.
“He’ll brush himself down and he’ll turn it into motivation. Sprint race in Brazil, Las Vegas a street circuit — he’s always run well at street circuits. Abu Dhabi, he’s always been competitive there as well. He’ll have the full support of the team to try and achieve something that we’ve not done before.”